I didn't believe it but yes, we are in a totally dystopian society and work environment

USA- I just started last week as a Receptionist in a medical office. The person who is training me is actually the office manager which is surprising. However, I quickly found out she is training me because the last person quit suddenly due to the office bully.

The office bully is a Nurse who hid her keys. She left them in the lunch room in the morning when she arrived and the Nurse hid them. For the entire day, the Receptionist was looking for them and no one, including all staff, would tell her they were hidden for the entire day.

She ended up crying on the sidewalk and calling her husband to leave work to pick her up. Her husband had to leave and she was locked out of the building in the cold. Only then did the Nurse say she had them.

This story was told to me this week as something that was absolutely hilarious. Also, the office manager was sitting next to me and laughed along. There was no concern that this was possibly crossing a line into bullying and resulted in that employee leaving the practice immediately with no notice. Apparently, this was not the only occurrence of bullying and this person is known for racist and homophobic remarks.

Just last week I was encouraged to make fun of the doctors, my co-workers and their age, hair styles, and I am not doing this.

If the office manager is in on it, should I just try to ignore all of this? I feel like I am in high school again.

I worked at Louis Armstrong Intl. Airport as a Taxi Dispatcher, it was kind of sketchy, since the company I applied with was called "U-Street" before transitioning after a month to ABM Industries, but the work and location, uniform, everything was the exact same.

There were 4 posts at the job.

1. Working at the front of Arrivals, by a Taxi Booth, where you were forced to stand for 7 and a half hours a day, with only a 30 minute lunch break for any kind of relief. Dealing with greedy cab drivers, and tourists needing cabs, you had to keep tallies of every customer, call the walkie talke for more cabs, mark down certain addresses, and make sure you knew what cab to put a customer in. You couldn't accept tips, and had to deal with annoying or very snippy customers and especially cab drivers.

2. The Uber/Lyft Line, also known as Rideshare. Here, you had to walk up and down 4 zones and make sure every driver was Uber and/or Lyft, if they had the decals, they could stay, but if not, you had to ask them if they were rideshare drivers. Oftentimes, many tried to lie, even when they had passengers or filthy cars, and got aggressive when called out on that, even if you tried to give clear instructions on the proper pick-up place or where to park, traffic could get bad otherwise. I've even been cursed at, and once nearly got into a fight.

3. The Ground Transportation Center/Trans 1, this is the gate at the Surface Parking Lot where City Busses, Airport Shuttles and Cars, Hotel Shuttles, Limo/Escort Vehicles and Parking Shuttles come by. You sit in a dinky chair, outside, by a gate, where you make sure (and management was very strict on who you let through, for good reason) that they're authorized with a decal, log in the company name, the time, and the make of the vehicle before letting them through.

4. The Holding Lot, this was considered the easiest post, mainly because you actually sat in a booth with air conditioning and windows, and had a walkie talkie on standby to send up Taxis when needed.

The issue for me wasn't the work itself, I could work every post and do at least as good as my co-workers, I'd argue I was probably one of the most competent employees, since everyone else was lethargic and just did the bare minimum, which I do not blame them for.

But what's the problem? Well, the pay's decent on paper, 15.61 an hour, but with no raises. Fine, but then, you have to deal with no PTO, shitty health benefits, no IRA, no retirement benefits, the Supervisor, who is Salaried never does any work.

Management cares more about the "Client" than the Employees, all the Supervisor ever does is micromanage, despite being incompetent at the job, and only stands around otherwise practicing his shitty golf-swing. He's despised by not just my former co-workers, who have cursed at him to his face for his bullshit, but by the cab drivers, the other airport employees, even an Uber Driver who I befriended and is helping me try to find a new job.

I can deal with ALL of this, (except the lack of PTO), since I could listen to music or videos with earbuds and work at the same time, but then you have to consider the poor working conditions.

When it's cold, I live in Louisiana, that's a BREAK for me. But then, when it's raining and I'm working at the GTC, all that was provided was a damaged plastic tent, with gorilla tape covering the holes, where getting drenched was an inevitability, and only having a damaged patio umbrella for protection.

When water bottles can't even be reliably guaranteed to be available on days where the heat index is well over 100 degrees, sometimes past 110 degrees.

When a co-worker working the crosswalk gets their foot run over and curses at the driver (something more than reasonable) ends up getting fired for it.

When the Supervisor makes sexist, racist comments about customers, is a "good ol' boy" and has been caught drinking on the job. And gets to miss 2 months of work over a heart surgery (which on paper, is more than reasonable), but everyone else who is hourly is forced to go to work, or doesn't get any sick days.

When customers and cab drivers can get into alterations and say the most unhinged shit, and any sort of retaliation is not tolerated by the supervisor (who left by 7 or 8 PM when all of us worked until midnight or later).

That alone was horrible, and I was planning on quitting November 17th, but then my supervisor tried to force all of us to go to a "Customer Service Seminar" on our days off, at 4 PM, potentially unpaid, with all this bullshit, and got upset when I told him it was horseshit, that was the beginning of the end.

I was only ever trained by co-workers, many of whom barely gave a shit about the job, but I don't blame them. I work as best I can for any job I have, but I learned my worth after this experience.

The kicker came on October 26th, I was working at the GTC, and a white truck came by, I told the guy initially to move since he lacked a decal, but a lot of maintenance workers flash their MSY badges and credentials and are allowed in, and this guy did the same, being a janitor.

I let him through, he comes by on foot not too long after, he can't leave, but that's not really my job, so I let him call my supervisor for help. My supervisor comes over, chewing me out, speaking to me like I'm some newbie after working a whole year, with no appreciation or respect.

He asks me why I let him through, I tell him the guy had the MSY badge.

"Just because someone has a badge, doesn't mean you should let them through. If you're confused, you just call me to make sure."

I was upset, since I was never prepared for something like this, and I told him that it was HIS job and HIS goddamn responsibility, not mine.

He said "you know what?", and left while going on his phone. A MSY car came by, and the lady respectfully explained to me what the issue was, and that all I had to do was make sure that the badge was for a particular department, she was far more concise and professional.

The Supervisor comes back, with a COP and tells me that I'm relieved of duty and that someone from ABM will get back to me (never got a call or email.), I'm baffled, but I had a feeling.

I drop my clipboard.

And I lay into him, but unlike my co-workers, I don't flail with curse words or insults.

I go for the throat.

I tell him off. That he's the most incompetent boss I ever had the displeasure of working for, that he's a racist, a sexist, a slob (never washed his hands and had stains on his shirt when I came to a shift), that he's losing any decent employees with the awful conditions and management, that he's peaked in life with a cruddy job where the only fulfillment he gets is throwing his weight around.

I get escorted, like I'm some threat, to the booth, I clock out, tell the cop that I did so and that I can do as I please (to which he agreed and left), explained everything to my co-workers, all of whom unanimously agreed with me and one even passed by and said: "Fuck (the Supervisor)".

I've filed for unemployment, I have a vacation in a few days, and while I'm worried about finding a better paying job in New Orleans to finally move from home.

I also feel optimistic, it's conflicting, I'm scared and excited.

All I can say is...FUCK ABM, never take a contracted gig at the airport, know your worth, don't put up with awful conditions, a lack of respect, and incompetent management.

After being prodded for 8 1/2 months about my political views, I decided to put an end to it and say we're all wage slaves and I didn't buy into capitalism. Less than a week later, I was pulled into HR and she said I told her "fuck you" in the conversation of which only me and her were a part of. I never said the words. I was then fired on the spot, and I believe it's because I didn't share the right wing, Christian, bigoted views of the organization. Anyone dealt with this?

the american healthcare industry sucks.

Been training a new employee for 2 months. It has been a disaster and I knew this person lacked many skills and qualities that would make them successful in their role. They aren’t tech savvy (this is an office job), still don’t know how to use the land line, is very uncomfortable familiarizing themselves with our programs, can’t retain anything, is overreactive to be corrected and is pushing back on what I’m training them. I have expressed my concerns to management in a meeting a month ago, and they basically insinuated I wasn’t training them properly and that everything is “new” to them. And I tried to explain that this person is either a really good liar or they are so forgetful they don’t recognize materials we’ve worked on.

Multiple times this person would say “I never trained on this, it’s my first time learning this, I never received a training manual on this” and it would be something I’ve gone over 8 times. And I know this for a fact because I kept a tracking list of everything we’ve done on a daily basis since they’ve started. They even said “I never learned this” on something we did literally the day before. And when I gave them the training manual “they never got”, they suddenly remembered it.

I know they are telling management the same that they never went over aaaallll these things and management will come to me and be like “so did you actually explain this as you went over it” - yes, every. single. time.

I know there’s something deeply wrong here, either this person lied on their resume and has a lying problem or they have memory issues. But I almost don’t want to say it’s fully a memory thing, because I’ve seen them get corrected and try to say “well I wasn’t working on that today so it couldn’t have been me” when it literally was. And since management won’t listen to me, I’m going to let it play out and they hopefully will see for themselves because my words do nothing.

ETA: I do want to add that there are more reasons as to why I think they are lying but most of them are specific so I don’t want to share in case this gets back to them. I wouldn’t suspect someone is a liar for minimal reasons. Let’s just say what’s written in their resume doesn’t reflect the skills they show and it’s very apparent. Along with the excuses they say when they get put on the spot.

Have to pay a 1500 dollar fine for not having health care in my state when I file my taxes but it’s still cheaper than paying for healthcare. This system is fucked.

I worked for a mid-sized tech company in a remote position. One day I was working and I got a message from my HR director if I was free to meet right now. I hopped on a meeting and was told because they lost a big client they were laying off multiple people today and I was one of them. 10 minutes later my email was deactivated and I was locked out of my work computer. Overall about 1/3 of all the workers were laid off that day.

About 10 days later, the HR director emailed me and asked if I’d be interested in returning in a part-time position. I asked what the job would be, and was surprised that it was essentially the same tasks as my previous position. Just no benefits, 10 less hours per week, and with a 12% hourly pay cut to my previous wage.

I found out from my other laid off co-workers that some of them had similar offers. So, basically the company found a really dirty way to reduce costs without losing qualified staff. Some of them said yes because the market is terrible. I don’t blame them. Just sucks the company got away with it. The company needed the workers they laid off. They just didn’t want to pay for them.

As we all know our bosses have been pushing us to learn and adopt AI. Im in tech on the business side so all stakeholders have the expectation.

Now with latest features of building AI agents, has made work easier for our dev and some procedures for myself. What i realized is the agents we create are local to our access. Meaning all the efficienies one of my developers or myself have created via agents will go away once we leave the team or company. I understand there are shareable templates but code doesnt run the same.

So my exact point is if i got 10 agents handling my job im not gna just hand it over if they fire me, that is my IP. I leave and im taking my 10 agents with me!! Get back the leverage

Our country had multiple presidents and Congresses who were terrified of the power of business tycoons. There were moments that the Goulds, Astors, Carnegies and Rockefellers were close to a critical mass; wherein they could merge all their corporate assets together and create super companies. This was seen as a fatal error for the middle and lower classes and the government at large and so the government literally took steps to deny mergers, break up large companies, or even outright nationalize them. This process was called "anti-trust enforcement", and the presidents and administrators who oversaw it were called "trust busters".

Fast forward to 2026 and consider the merger of SpaceX/Tesla. If EVER there was a moment to consider anti trust enforcement to protect the middle and lower classes and the future power of the Congress it is now. If they merge the Congress needs to trust bust them. We've created a trillionaire. He will soon be too powerful for you to dictate to competitively. None of the anti trust enforcement we have done in our history matters if we allow this merger. We will have utterly failed to prevent oligarchy

A strike by more than 4,000 Harvard graduate student workers is now in its third week, demanding raises to address skyrocketing living costs, childcare benefits, protections for international students and academic freedom at the richest university in the world.

There is no week that I don't receive an email about this: they offer me 1-2h paid consultancy for a client that wants to know about the market I work in.

A colleague told me that said clients are normally investments firms that are doing due diligicence, or companies that are in the process of being bought/sold

In the past I used to answer, I have ended being ghosted over time, even after doing a short call to assess if I was a good fit.

Now, I don't answer, or I politely decline.

Has anyone had one of those? Is this real?

My colleague is leaving / my manager decided to update my job description to align with my responsibilities. Thought it'd be a good time, after 2 years, to ask for a job title that reflects what I do (as I have managerial responsibilities with a very junior title).

I was told by my manager today that although she vouched for me, apparently, HR said if I'm not going "above and beyond" and doing tasks outside of my job description, then it doesn't warrant a promotion.

My manager then brought up a big project that needs completing within 3 months - and that delivering this would be good leverage. I am already performing well, at capacity, I haven't been given the opportunity/had the time to do tasks outside of my job description, we are one person down, and now I'm being told this!

I fully explained how this came across, specifically saying I felt like it was exploitative to expect this of employees and that delivering this project wouldn't even guarantee any sort of promotion - and she agreed! Our company turnover is so high.

All I was asking for was a title that reflects what I do, not a pay rise. She then sends over my updated job description and literally it says "lead and manage" on multiple points. At the same time, this week, I was teaching another manager how to copy and paste ffs (more than once) 🤯. If I don't laugh, I will cry!!

I stay away from HR, but should I speak to them confidentially get them to clarify? Should I sign the new job description? Not sure on how to proceed other than move on (but I hoped it wouldn't come to that).

Or at least employees are not treated as slaves

They have convinced themselves that the higher ups won't use this to replace them and that it's just a tool to "help" them do their job.

Just venting here, but why is fucking everything urgent, important, top priority? Why is missing any expectations at all for any reason means for termination?

Like I got put on this project in a language I’ve never written in my life in a domain I’ve never worked on and I was expected to deliver with the same quality and speed of someone who had been doing it for like, 8+ years non stop

Asking me to work on this is like handing a hammer, chisel, and marble block to an oil painter and telling them to make a replica of the statue of David. Like yeah, sure, they’re artist so they’ll do better than the average person, but it’s a totally different game than painting

Then the consequence for not delivering is being fired. How’s that motivating at all? I succeed, I get nothing. If I fail, I lose my job, I lose access to healthcare, housing, and food. Sure, I have an emergency fund, but we’re in an unstable job market. Also, pay is worse and everything is more expensive, so that emergency fund doesn’t go nearly as far

It feels like having a sniper on you at all times, no matter where you are. And because of layoffs, you need to add the extra dimension of the sniper might just… you know… choose to fire for no particular reason and there’s nothing you can do

Why do they think this will work? Have you ever done anything better when you were under an immense amount of stress? I think it’s just an emotional release for them cause they’re miserable

Then since this happens so much, you have an endless conveyer belt of people coming in, learning the ropes, starting to hit their stride… then getting burned out and getting fired before they meaningfully contribute. How tf is that productive at all?

As far as I can tell, this whole management method was pioneered by Jack Welch. Uh. Guys. GE IS FUCKING DEAD. He failed. Yeah, he made a bunch of money in a short amount of time, who cares? I can do that too

Say my monthly pay is $10k. This month I will sell my car for $20k, wow I just tripled my salary! I’m a genius! Oh… now it’s next month and I need more money… I’ll sell all the furniture in my apartment! Then the next month my computer! Oh now I have nothing else to sell, I know, I’ll just cut electricity to my apartment, now I’m spending less! I can probably just sell my computer too. Wow, I have so much money in my bank account! I’m so smart!

… wait, I sold my car, how do I get to work? I can’t even work from home cause I cut electricity. I sold all my pots and pans so I can’t even cook for myself…

… but look at my bank account! Number go up!

How is this not obvious? Like I know they’re just trying to raise the value then get their bag and get out but… if everyone is doing that same thing, we’re basically just ripping apart everything that made America rich and selling it off for parts

The outage proved it. It was a snow day for adults.

We are all being controlled in every industry by these two companies if we actually realize this with their corporate tools. #AbolishMicrosoft #AbolishGoogle. I guarantee most jobs wouldn’t exist without them.

No. 9 - Deeply Neurological
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